The Debate in the Diner
by Mitchy1
Summary: Angela and Brennan debate the ethics of using feminine wiles. Written for Yuletide fic challenge Christmas 2007. I own nothing and have nothing. All characters copyright Kathy Reichs and Fox Television.


**THE DEBATE IN THE DINER**

The diner was packed but Angela had managed to get them two seats together at the counter by simply smiling at the man sitting next to an empty seat and asking if he'd be a sweetie and move up to a single seat further up the bar.

"How do you _do_ that?" muttered Brennan as they settled in. "If I'd asked him, he'd have growled at me."

"Sweetie, we have certain natural charms and they're devastating when you use them properly."

"Are you saying you flashed your breasts at him?"

Angela rolled her eyes. "No, I didn't stoop to that. I might have done if he'd been really cute. It's all in the smile and how you flutter your eyelashes."

Brennan waved her hands and Angela recognised the signs of an impending rant. "It's ridiculous! I understand that it's all about the mating ritual, but we're not trying to pair up for life here, you just wanted him to move seats. It doesn't cost him anything to move, it's basic courtesy. Why does sex appeal have to come into it?"

Angela wondered how many times they would have variations on this conversation. "No, it didn't cost him anything. It was a little inconvenient though. He'd just started drinking his coffee, he had to stop, move his stuff, get settled in again. If fluttering my eyelashes makes him feel better about it, why not? That didn't cost _me_ anything."

"It's demeaning."

"No, it's not. It would be demeaning if it was the only way I could get promoted at work, or the only way I could get a date."

There was a brief pause in the debate as the waitress took their orders but Angela could tell Brennan wasn't going to let this go; she'd seen that glint in her eye before. Sure enough, the minute the waitress had wondered off, Brennan returned to the attack.

"But every time you use your "charms" that way, doesn't it just reinforce the negative consequences elsewhere? In a male dominated environment, you might be thought less of because of your methodology. "

Angela resisted the urge to bang her head on the counter and wondered, for the millionth time, how someone as smart as Brennan could be so dense about certain things. She sought a new way to get her message across.

"The point is, we should be able to do what we please without being judged differently. If I'd been sitting in that seat and a good looking guy came and asked me to move seats, the same way I asked that guy, do you think anyone would think less of him for it? No, of course not. Men can flirt and run around as much as they like and they're just one of the guys. Not us. _T__hat's_ demeaning."

"Now there, we're in complete agreement. I still think it's ridiculous though."

Angela grinned. "You're not seeing the fun parts to it, sweetie. The odds might be stacked against us, but we have the power to reduce a man to jelly simply by batting our eyelashes. They're lucky we only use this power for good."

"Good? Is that what you call making Hodgins spill his coffee twice inside five minutes the other day? You know Cam has banned him from having drinks at his computer station now."

Angela looked astonishingly unrepentant. "It's a gift we've been given and we should use it."

"If it's a gift, shouldn't we use it for more important things than taking advantage of susceptible males?"

"They think _we're_ the weaker sex. Really, they have no idea. It's good to remind them occasionally."

Food was served and conversation halted while they each dealt with the preliminaries of demolishing the sandwiches they'd ordered. It wasn't long before Brennan returned to the fray, waving a fry by way of pointer.

"You know why it really annoys me? It's unfair on the women who don't conform to the general male definition of beauty. It's saying "Yes, I'll give up my seat, but only because I find you physically pleasing."

"It's unfair but it still works both ways. I'd be less inclined to switch seats if it had been, ooh, Gollum that asked."

"All that proves that humans make value judgements based on appearances, which does nothing to address any sociological inequalities." A pause. "Gollum?"

Angela waved a fork dismissively, causing the diner next to her to lean warily out of range. "Never mind. Look, if you lack the charms of others, you learn to compensate, sweetie. Politeness and force of personality can go a long way too. Look at Caroline."

Brennan looked dubious. "I wouldn't say she was polite."

"No, but she has force of personality. She speaks, everyone hops to obey."

"We're getting away from the point. The point of this is the objectification of women by men. Or vice versa. I still find it ludicrous that you even thought it necessary to flatter the man into giving up his seat."

"It was tactics, he looked like the kind of guy who'd fall for that sort of thing. And I was right, so who's the shallow one? Me for using those tactics, or the guy for falling for them?"

"Both of you!"

"You're the anthropologist, how much of this is hard-wired into us through thousands of years of breeding?"

"All of it, I guess. But we have overcome our beginnings and evolved to a stage where we are constantly debating important issues that will ensure how we continue to function as a society, but we still can't move past the point of "Ugh, girl pretty, me give up seat"?"

"But we haven't lost the thrill of the hunt. C'mon, Brennan, it's _fun_! And fun's good for you."

Brennan snorted and cast a quick look down the bar. "Well, your "fun" keeps looking over at you hopefully. Maybe he thinks he's found someone to drag back to his cave."

Angela sniffed. "Sweetie, if I wasn't devoted to Hodgins, I might drag him back to _my_ cave. He's not exactly ugly."

"You realise you're proving my point?"

"You realise I don't care?"

Brennan grinned and gave up, at least long enough to finish the rest of her sandwich. It was toward the end of the meal that Brennan became aware of raised voices outside the diner. Turning to look, she joined the rest of the diner in watching an altercation between a woman driver and a cabbie over who, exactly, was entitled to the nearby parking space. The cabbie was using height and volume to try and overwhelm the woman, but then a truck driver got out of his cab and intervened. The cabbie was seen to stomp off and the woman gratefully park in the space.

Turning back to her plate, Brennan pointed one of the last fries in Angela's direction. "And that annoys me too. The whole male thing of having to protect the weak and helpless woman."

"It has its uses; that lady just got the last parking space this side of Capitol Hill. I think it's kind of sweet, really I do. I mean, it's like the way Booth always holds the door open for you and why he hates you having a gun."

"What's Booth got to do with this. And he does not! And he just has a silly hang up because I shot someone. In the leg. _In self-defence!_"

Angela shook her head. "No, he doesn't like it because some part of him feels he should be protecting you. You having a gun takes that away. We could also go into the whole "you've got a bigger gun than he has" but, let's not."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Brennan's expression and sudden concentration on scooping up every last fry from her plate suggested otherwise but Angela said nothing and just contented herself with a secret smile. "Anyway, I don't agree that he feels protective because I'm a woman. We're partners, it's different."

"I don't think so, sweetie. I don't think he'd feel _quite_ the same way if you were male."

"That is so not true!"

"Oh come on, you bicker like a an old married couple! Only those closest to us can really get under our skin and you two _really_ get under each other's skin!"

"You're imagining things. We have spirited exchanges on many subjects, but it's just healthy debate."

The peal of giggles from her dining companion didn't impress Brennan at all. "Stop it, Angela. You're seeing things that aren't there!"

Calming down, Angela waved a hand in a conciliatory fashion. "All right, if you say so. But remember this conversation. Because one day, I am going to be able to say "I told you so" in big, capital letters!"

For rest of the afternoon, to Brennan's utter mystification, Angela smirked every time a certain FBI agent's name was mentioned. It was ridiculous! Anyone could see there was _nothing at all_ between her and Booth!


End file.
